Issue No. 239
4th November 2026

Britain is selling its best startups too early, warns angel investor

Britain is selling its most promising technology companies before they reach scale, leaving overseas acquirers and investors to capture the value built here. So says Simon Thorpe, former chair of Cambridge Angels, who has back more than 60 UK startups over 15 years and recorded 14 exits. Only one of those exits was to a UK buyer. "We are good at startups in the UK," he says. "We're not so good at scale-ups." Thorpe argues the UK needs more sources of capital that can buy out early investors and fund the next stage, so a trade sale is not the only route to liquidity.

With best regards

Mark Simms, Editor
editor@machinebuilding.net

EDITORS CHOICE

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